OHA committee to decide on controversial immersion charter school grant

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Resource Management Committee will meet on October 11, 2017, at 10 a.m. to determine whether or not to approve Hawaiian Focus Charter Schools (HFCS) grant monies initially awarded to the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA). The committee may deiced to reset and revisit the HFCS grant award process instead.

Although the $3 million grant went through a standard competitive bidding process, it was revealed at the September 27 Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment (BAE) Committee meeting that OHA staff awarded the HFCS grant before getting approval from the Board of Trustees. The OHA “Letter of Interest Solicitation” for the HFCS grant specifically states that “Recommendations for award will be presented to OHA’s Board of Trustees for Approval.” However, after hours of discussion and testimony, and after being questioned by the trustees, OHA Chief Executive Officer Kamanaʻopono Crabbe and a grants personnel representative admitted that the HFCS grants process was not properly followed.

When it was revealed on September 6 that the money would be going to CNHA, OHA Chair Colette Machado expressed shock, claiming OHA had been “hoodwinked” into approving the monies.

HFCS administrators, staff, parents, students and community members organized opposition to the grant award, showing up at the BAE meeting to submit oral testimony urging OHA to reconsider the award. In past years, this particular grant has been administered by Kanu O Ka ʻĀina Learning ʻOhana. Much of the testimony centered on several important cultural and procedural errors, including the failure by CNHA to consult with all 17 Hawaiian Charter Schools before applying to receive millions of dollars on their behalf.

Hālau Kū Māna principal Dr. Brandon Bunag said, “Regardless of what the application did or did not require, it is best practice—pono—to at least inform schools of an intent or desire to support our school by administering a grant that has been managed by another organization for so many years.”

Once the award of the grant was made public, hundreds of letters from throughout the islands came in to CEO Crabbe and the Board of Trustees, asking them to reconsider awarding the $3 million HFCS grant to CNHA. Much of the community concern centers on a lack of trust in CNHA, an organization that has advocated relentlessly and ambitiously for a policy of Federal Recognition, which would legitimize the U.S. occupation of Hawaiʻi.